The World of Designers Hotels 114: NEW Hotel, Athens

Offering an entirely NEW approach to young interior design, energetic hospitality, and seductive customer-centered services, NEW Hotel is the first ever hotel project of award winning designer duo, Fernando and Humberto Campana.

YES! Hotels owner and international arts patron Dakis Joannou commissioned the Brazilian brothers for their eco-sensitive ethos and the use of contemporary handicraft practices and local idioms. Drawn to their specific language, which in turn draws from urban street life, contemporary art and the São Paulo favela culture, Joannou gave them absolute freedom to dream.

The result is an intriguing 79-room establishment, where every public space and every floor has been creatively re-NEW-ed to include remnants of the former Olympic Palace Hotel. The interiors are simply outstanding, the unusual custom-made furniture and handmade fixtures making guests feel that they live and breathe in a major art installation. New Hotel is located on Filellinon Str. 16, 200 meters from Constitution Square and within walking distance from the city’s main attractions. Both leisure and business travelers will enjoy this enviable NEW hotel, right at the center of Athens.

All the guestrooms from the 1st to the 6th floor enjoy natural day light and are completely soundproof. With their floor to ceiling windows, and solid bamboo floors and tables, they are faithful to the Campana exploration of space. Equally breathtaking are the bathrooms, replicating the creative use of materials and spaces. Washbasins take the form of ‘fragmented rocks’, playing with the painstaking assemblage of favela shapes, a theme reproduced throughout the Hotel.

Some washbasins can even be mistaken for sculptures, located as they are separately from the shower room. Fragmented, full-length, gold shaded mirrors complete and complement the overall arrangement, while unusual materials, a golden polyester wash base or a solid brass washbowl create an exciting surprise element. Floor to ceiling bamboo walls, wood natural colors and opaque glassed elements create a truly tranquil environment. Bathrooms are decadently stocked with Kiehl’s or Apivita toiletries.